herodotus

the money which the Persians had brought with them had all beenconsumed by them, and not only that, but Aristagoras himself had spentmuch in addition, and the siege demanded ever more and more, theybuilt walls for the Naxian exiles and departed to the mainland againwith ill success. 35. And so Aristagoras was not able to fulfil hispromise to Artaphrenes; and at the same time he was hard pressed bythe demand made to him for the expenses of the expedition, and hadfears because of the ill success of the armament and because he hadbecome an enemy of Megabates; and he supposed that he would bedeprived of his rule over Miletos. Having all these various fears hebegan to make plans of revolt: for it happened also that just at thistime the man who had been marked upon the head had come from Hisiaioswho was at Susa, signifying that Aristagoras should revolt from theking. For Histiaios, desiring to signify to Aristagoras that he shouldrevolt, was not able to do it safely in any other way, because theroads were guarded, but shaved off the hair of the most faithful ofhis slaves, and having marked his head by pricking it, waited till thehair had grown again; and as soon as it was grown, he sent him away toMiletos, giving him no other charge but this, namely that when heshould have arrived at Miletos he should bid Aristagoras shave hishair and look at his head: and the marks, as I have said before,signified revolt. This thing Histiaios was doing, because he wasgreatly vexed by being detained at Susa. He had great hopes then thatif a revolt occurred he would be let go to the sea-coast; but if nochange was made at Miletos[20a] he had no expectation of everreturning thither again.36. Accordingly Hisiaios with this intention was sending themessenger; and it chanced that all these things happened toAristagoras together at the same time. He took counsel therefore withhis partisans, declaring to them both his own opinion and the messagefrom Hisiaios; and while all the rest expressed an opinion to the sameeffect, urging him namely to make revolt, Hecataios the historianurged first that they should not undertake war with the king of thePersians, enumerating all the nations over whom Dareios was ruler, andhis power: and when he did not succeed in persuading him, hecounselled next that they should manage to make themselves masters ofthe sea. Now this, he continued, could not come to pass in any otherway, so far as he could see, for he knew that the force of theMilesians was weak, but if the treasures should be taken[21] whichwere in the temple at Branchidai, which Crœsus the Lydian dedicated asofferings, he had great hopes that they might become masters of thesea; and by this means they would not only themselves have wealth attheir disposal, but the enemy would not be able to carry the thingsoff as plunder. Now these treasures were of great value, as I haveshown in the first part of the history.[22] This opinion did not